College notes: Vlasta Mangia leaves mark on North Central softball

North Central College's Vlasta Mangia delivers a pitch in a game this season. The Morton grad capped off a standout career for the Cardinals with all-conference and all-region awards.

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(Photo courtesy of Dominican University department of athletics)

St. Joseph grad and Berwyn native Joe Krasny led Dominican in batting average at .411 and was named Dominican's 2014 Male Athlete of the Year.

By SUBURBAN LIFE MEDIA

High schools have hit summer break and the recently graduated senior class is preparing for college. Some local products already in college participated in spring sports and racked up some notable accomplishments. Here’s a look at what spring 2014 brought for local college athletes.

Mangia caps stellar career with NCC records

Vlasta Mangia has been a key cog for North Central College softball the past four years. She entered this season with school records in career wins and innings pitches and added to those numbers as a senior.

Mangia had 11 wins and tossed 107 innings to bring her career totals to 64 wins and 659 2/3 innings. She now also holds NCC career marks for shutouts (16) and strikeouts (318). She had a 2.03 ERA in the circle.

Offensively, the Morton graduate hit .364 with five home runs, 23 RBIs and 30 runs.

She was named a second-team all-Collegiate Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin player and a third-team all-Great Lakes Region pick, the third time in her career she was an all-region player.

Bukowski puts name all over record book

Elmhurst College senior Clare Bukowski, a Morton grad, hit .303 for the Bluejays this spring. The outfielder started all 30 games and had a team-high 15 extra-base hits. She had 22 RBIs, also a team-high, and scored 17 runs.

Bukowski was a second-team all-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin player, earning her first all-conference recognition. She finished her four-year career as Elmhurst’s all-time leader in home runs (18), at-bats (450) and total bases (223) while ranking second in runs scored (83), doubles (30), extra base hits (53) and RBIs (91).

Hutchens leads Radford offense

Jessie Hutchens, a Riverside Brookfield grad from Berwyn, led Radford softball in multiple offensive categories, including batting average (.351), home runs (18), RBIs (49) and runs scored (39). The senior was first-team All-Big South and tied for the league lead in homers. Hutchens’ 33 career home runs place her third on the school’s all-time list.

Krasny stars for Dominican

St. Joseph grad and Berwyn native Joe Krasny led the Dominican Stars in batting average at .411. He started in 40 of the Stars’ 41 games and also had team-highs in runs scored (40), total bases (89), on-base percentage (.456) and slugging percentage (.563).

His standout senior season saw him named as the Dominican’s 2014 Male Athlete of the Year. He was an American Baseball Coaches Association and D3baseball.com All-Midwest third-team selection and first-team All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference honoree. Krasny led the NACC in batting average.

He also set the program’s single-game records for home runs, total bases, runs batted in and runs scored all in Game 2 of a doubleheader against Lakeland College. In the game, Krasny went 4-for-5 with three home runs and a double, eight RBIs and five runs scored.